Chapter #5- Ecosystems: Concepts and Fundamentals Guided Reading Assignment
Case Study: Sea Otters, Sea Urchins, and Kelp: Indirect Effects of Species on One Another
1: Define: Community Effect: When an animal decreases the size of a population that destroys a habitat indirectly.
2: Explain WHY the Sea Otter is considered the Keystone Species in this ecosystem. (Hint: Explain the food chain)
Because they eat sea urchins and sea urchins eat kelp which is home to many different marine organisms.
3: Why were Sea Otters endangered and how did their numbers rebound?
Sea otters were endangered because they were hunted for their fur. Their numbers rebounded when it had legal protection in 1911.
5.1- The Ecosystem: Sustaining Life on Earth
1: Define Ecosystem Structure
An ecosystem has two major parts living and non living. The nonliving parts include atmosphere, water, soil, and minerals. The living parts are known as ecological community.
2: What two main processes must occur to maintain an ecosystem?
Cycling of chemical nutrients and flow of energy.
5.2- Ecological Communities and Food Chains
1: What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? A food chain is showing how energy is transferred up the trophic level while a food web is a visual map of feeding relationship and energy flow
2: Define: Trophic Level
All organisms in a food web that are the same number of feeding levels away from the original energy source
3: Define: Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, Carnivores, Herbivores, Decomposeters
Autotrophs: Self feeding organisms
Heterotrophs: Organisms that feed off other organisms
Carnivores: Meat eaters
Herbivores: Organisms that feed off plants
Decomposers: Organisms that feed off dead organic material
4: Explain the food web of Yellowstone Hot Springs. Explain each trophic level (include a photo).
The first level is the photosynthetic bacteria and algae. The second level is the Ephydrid flies. The third level is the carnivores and the last level is the decomposers.
1: Define: Community Effect: When an animal decreases the size of a population that destroys a habitat indirectly.
2: Explain WHY the Sea Otter is considered the Keystone Species in this ecosystem. (Hint: Explain the food chain)
Because they eat sea urchins and sea urchins eat kelp which is home to many different marine organisms.
3: Why were Sea Otters endangered and how did their numbers rebound?
Sea otters were endangered because they were hunted for their fur. Their numbers rebounded when it had legal protection in 1911.
5.1- The Ecosystem: Sustaining Life on Earth
1: Define Ecosystem Structure
An ecosystem has two major parts living and non living. The nonliving parts include atmosphere, water, soil, and minerals. The living parts are known as ecological community.
2: What two main processes must occur to maintain an ecosystem?
Cycling of chemical nutrients and flow of energy.
5.2- Ecological Communities and Food Chains
1: What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? A food chain is showing how energy is transferred up the trophic level while a food web is a visual map of feeding relationship and energy flow
2: Define: Trophic Level
All organisms in a food web that are the same number of feeding levels away from the original energy source
3: Define: Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, Carnivores, Herbivores, Decomposeters
Autotrophs: Self feeding organisms
Heterotrophs: Organisms that feed off other organisms
Carnivores: Meat eaters
Herbivores: Organisms that feed off plants
Decomposers: Organisms that feed off dead organic material
4: Explain the food web of Yellowstone Hot Springs. Explain each trophic level (include a photo).
The first level is the photosynthetic bacteria and algae. The second level is the Ephydrid flies. The third level is the carnivores and the last level is the decomposers.
5: Explain a pelagic ecosystem. Explain each trophic level (include photos).
A pelagic ecosystem is an open ocean ecosystem. The first level is the photosynthetic bacteria The second level is zooplankton that feed on algae. The third level is fish and other invertebrates that feed on zooplankton. The fourth level are fish and marine mammals like killer whales.
A pelagic ecosystem is an open ocean ecosystem. The first level is the photosynthetic bacteria The second level is zooplankton that feed on algae. The third level is fish and other invertebrates that feed on zooplankton. The fourth level are fish and marine mammals like killer whales.
A Closer Look- Land and Marine Food Webs1: Look at the terrestrial food web. Should we include people within this ecosystem’s food web? That would place us within nature. OR should we place people outside of the ecosystem, thus separate from nature? We shouldn't because any change could alter the food web and create a complete disaster. We should place people outside of the ecosystem because of this fear of creating a problem instead of a solution.
5.3- Ecosystems as Systems
1: Why are ecosystems considered to be OPEN systems?
We should include humans in the food web, because we feed on other trophic levels which can be put as a 5th trophic level.
2: Define: Watershed
All rain that reaches the ground from any source flows out in one stream
5.4- Biological Production and Ecosystem Energy Flow
1: Define: Energy
The ability to do work or to move matter
2: Explain: Ecosystem Energy Flow- What two ways does energy enter an ecosystem?
Energy flow is the movement of energy through an ecosystem from the external environment through a series of organisms and back to the external environment. Two ways that energy enter an ecosystem are 3 energy fixed by organisms and moving through food webs within an ecosystem.
The Laws of Thermodynamics and the Ultimate Limit on the Abundance of Life
1: The First Law of Thermodynamics is also known as what? Define it.
The first law of Thermodynamics is known as the law of conservation of energy it states that energy is neither created nor destroyed however it is only changed forms
2: What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics say?
No use of energy can ever be 100% efficient
3: Define Entropy (give an example).
The measure of the decrease in order. An example can be making furniture
4: What is an intermediate system?
When an ecosystem must lie between a source of usable energy and a sink for degraded energy
5.5- Biological Production and Biomass
1: What is biomass?
Total amount of organic matter in an ecosystem
2: Define the following:
*Biological Production:The capture of usable energy from the environment to produce organic matter or organic compound
* Gross Production: Increase in stored energy
* Net Production: Amount of newly acquired energy stored after energy was used
3: What are the 3 measures that are used for biomass and biological production?
Amount of organic material, energy stored, and carbon stored
4: What is primary production- who carries this out?
The production carried about by autotrophs
5: What is secondary production- who is involved?
Production carried out by heterotrophs
6: Who are chemoautotrophs? Explain- where are they usually found?
Autotroph bacteria that can derive energy from inorganic sulfur compound, and are found in deep ocean vents
5.6- Energy Efficiency and Transfer Efficiency
1: What is energy efficiency?
Ratio of output to input. Amount of useful work obtained from some amount of available energy
2: How would energy efficiency look with a wolf and moose population? Explain.
Energy efficiency between a wolf and moose would be a wolf with little energy and a moose with abundance. The moose would use little of the nergy it took in so storing most of it as muscle and fat which is what the wolf can eat.
3: What is food-chain or trophic level efficiency?
Ratio of production of one trophic level to the next lower level
4: Generally, how much energy is lost to heat when being transferred between trophic levels?
About 90% of energy is lost as heat during energy transfer
5.7- Ecological Stability and Succession
1: What is ecological succession?
Ecological succession is when an ecosystem recovers from an event if the damage is not too drastic
2: Compare and contrast primary and secondary succession- give an example of each.
Primary- The establishment and development of an ecosystem where one did no exist previously.Secondary- Establishment of an ecosystem after disturbance
3: Explain how succession would look in a Dune.
The grass that will begin to grow puts out runners with sharp ends. The stems carry out photosynthesis and grasses grow. When dune grass is established, it stabilizes sand and seeds have a better chance to germinate. Eventually a heavy storm will destroy all this forcing everything to start over
4: Explain how succession would look in a Bog.
Sedge which is a grass like herb puts out floating runners on top of the water crisscrossing creating somewhat of a mat. Other plants will land on the mat and germinate. Trees and shrubs will be adapted to the environment and grow.
5: Explain how succession would look in an old-field.
Small plants adapt to the harsh conditions of the clearing. Larger plants will show up eventually which will create a dense forest.
6: Explain how succession would look in a coral reef.
Coral settles on a solid surface and produces a hard polyp of calcium carbonate. The material becomes the surface which new individuals can establish on them when they die. Eventually a large and complex structure results involving many other species.
5.9- How Species Change Succession
1: Explain facilitation in succession and where is it most common?
Species change the local environment in ways that make is suitable for another species on later stages. Earlier-successional species do this.
2: Explain interference in succession and what it can lead to.
Situations where the earlier-successional species changes the environment so it's unsuitable for another species of later-successional stage.
3: What is chronic patchiness? When does this occur?
Chronic patchiness is when no there is no specie interaction from succession, this occurs when an environment is highly disturbed highly stressful in terms of temperature precipitation or chemical availability
Critical Thinking Issue: Should People Eat Lower on the Food Chain?
1: Why does the energy content decrease at each higher level of a food chain? What happens to the energy lost at each level?
Energy is loss at each higher level of a food chain because energy is loss as it moves up the food chain. The energy loss is being radiated as heat
2: Why it is appropriate to use mass to represent energy content?
Because it shows how much of something is needed to supply energy to something higher up in the food chain
3: Using the average of 21 kilojoules of energy to equal 1g of completely dried vegetation and assuming that wheat is 80% water, what is the energy content of the 333,000 kg of wheat shown in the pyramid? (show your work).
333,000/21 = 15857 * .80 = 12686 Joules
4: Make a list of environmental arguments for and against an entirely vegetarian diet for people. What might be the consequences for the United States agriculture if everyone in the country began to eat lower on the food chain?
For: More energy, it'll be good to the environment, you'll be healthier
Against: Less nutrients that only meat can give you, natural way of living
5: How low do you eat on the food chain? Would you be willing to eat lower? Explain.
I eat as low to vegetables on the food chain. I am willing to go lower if there was nothing else to eat, and I needed to survive.
Study Questions:
1: Farming has been described as managing land to keep it in an early stage of succession. What does this mean, and how is it achieved?
It means that if a piece of land was left alone for many years it would evolve through natural selection starting from grasses to shrubs to trees.
2: Keep track of the food you eat during one day and make a food chain linking yourself with the sources of those foods. Determine the biomass (grams) and energy (kilocalories) you have eaten. Using an average of 5Kcal/g, then using the information on food packaging or assuming that your net production is 10% efficient in terms of energy intake, how much additional energy might you have stored during the day? (What is your weight gain from the food you have eaten?)
Breakfast- Nothing = 0 calories
Lunch- Pizza = 300 calories
Dinner- Steak = 750 calories
Total = 1,050 calories eaten.
5.3- Ecosystems as Systems
1: Why are ecosystems considered to be OPEN systems?
We should include humans in the food web, because we feed on other trophic levels which can be put as a 5th trophic level.
2: Define: Watershed
All rain that reaches the ground from any source flows out in one stream
5.4- Biological Production and Ecosystem Energy Flow
1: Define: Energy
The ability to do work or to move matter
2: Explain: Ecosystem Energy Flow- What two ways does energy enter an ecosystem?
Energy flow is the movement of energy through an ecosystem from the external environment through a series of organisms and back to the external environment. Two ways that energy enter an ecosystem are 3 energy fixed by organisms and moving through food webs within an ecosystem.
The Laws of Thermodynamics and the Ultimate Limit on the Abundance of Life
1: The First Law of Thermodynamics is also known as what? Define it.
The first law of Thermodynamics is known as the law of conservation of energy it states that energy is neither created nor destroyed however it is only changed forms
2: What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics say?
No use of energy can ever be 100% efficient
3: Define Entropy (give an example).
The measure of the decrease in order. An example can be making furniture
4: What is an intermediate system?
When an ecosystem must lie between a source of usable energy and a sink for degraded energy
5.5- Biological Production and Biomass
1: What is biomass?
Total amount of organic matter in an ecosystem
2: Define the following:
*Biological Production:The capture of usable energy from the environment to produce organic matter or organic compound
* Gross Production: Increase in stored energy
* Net Production: Amount of newly acquired energy stored after energy was used
3: What are the 3 measures that are used for biomass and biological production?
Amount of organic material, energy stored, and carbon stored
4: What is primary production- who carries this out?
The production carried about by autotrophs
5: What is secondary production- who is involved?
Production carried out by heterotrophs
6: Who are chemoautotrophs? Explain- where are they usually found?
Autotroph bacteria that can derive energy from inorganic sulfur compound, and are found in deep ocean vents
5.6- Energy Efficiency and Transfer Efficiency
1: What is energy efficiency?
Ratio of output to input. Amount of useful work obtained from some amount of available energy
2: How would energy efficiency look with a wolf and moose population? Explain.
Energy efficiency between a wolf and moose would be a wolf with little energy and a moose with abundance. The moose would use little of the nergy it took in so storing most of it as muscle and fat which is what the wolf can eat.
3: What is food-chain or trophic level efficiency?
Ratio of production of one trophic level to the next lower level
4: Generally, how much energy is lost to heat when being transferred between trophic levels?
About 90% of energy is lost as heat during energy transfer
5.7- Ecological Stability and Succession
1: What is ecological succession?
Ecological succession is when an ecosystem recovers from an event if the damage is not too drastic
2: Compare and contrast primary and secondary succession- give an example of each.
Primary- The establishment and development of an ecosystem where one did no exist previously.Secondary- Establishment of an ecosystem after disturbance
3: Explain how succession would look in a Dune.
The grass that will begin to grow puts out runners with sharp ends. The stems carry out photosynthesis and grasses grow. When dune grass is established, it stabilizes sand and seeds have a better chance to germinate. Eventually a heavy storm will destroy all this forcing everything to start over
4: Explain how succession would look in a Bog.
Sedge which is a grass like herb puts out floating runners on top of the water crisscrossing creating somewhat of a mat. Other plants will land on the mat and germinate. Trees and shrubs will be adapted to the environment and grow.
5: Explain how succession would look in an old-field.
Small plants adapt to the harsh conditions of the clearing. Larger plants will show up eventually which will create a dense forest.
6: Explain how succession would look in a coral reef.
Coral settles on a solid surface and produces a hard polyp of calcium carbonate. The material becomes the surface which new individuals can establish on them when they die. Eventually a large and complex structure results involving many other species.
5.9- How Species Change Succession
1: Explain facilitation in succession and where is it most common?
Species change the local environment in ways that make is suitable for another species on later stages. Earlier-successional species do this.
2: Explain interference in succession and what it can lead to.
Situations where the earlier-successional species changes the environment so it's unsuitable for another species of later-successional stage.
3: What is chronic patchiness? When does this occur?
Chronic patchiness is when no there is no specie interaction from succession, this occurs when an environment is highly disturbed highly stressful in terms of temperature precipitation or chemical availability
Critical Thinking Issue: Should People Eat Lower on the Food Chain?
1: Why does the energy content decrease at each higher level of a food chain? What happens to the energy lost at each level?
Energy is loss at each higher level of a food chain because energy is loss as it moves up the food chain. The energy loss is being radiated as heat
2: Why it is appropriate to use mass to represent energy content?
Because it shows how much of something is needed to supply energy to something higher up in the food chain
3: Using the average of 21 kilojoules of energy to equal 1g of completely dried vegetation and assuming that wheat is 80% water, what is the energy content of the 333,000 kg of wheat shown in the pyramid? (show your work).
333,000/21 = 15857 * .80 = 12686 Joules
4: Make a list of environmental arguments for and against an entirely vegetarian diet for people. What might be the consequences for the United States agriculture if everyone in the country began to eat lower on the food chain?
For: More energy, it'll be good to the environment, you'll be healthier
Against: Less nutrients that only meat can give you, natural way of living
5: How low do you eat on the food chain? Would you be willing to eat lower? Explain.
I eat as low to vegetables on the food chain. I am willing to go lower if there was nothing else to eat, and I needed to survive.
Study Questions:
1: Farming has been described as managing land to keep it in an early stage of succession. What does this mean, and how is it achieved?
It means that if a piece of land was left alone for many years it would evolve through natural selection starting from grasses to shrubs to trees.
2: Keep track of the food you eat during one day and make a food chain linking yourself with the sources of those foods. Determine the biomass (grams) and energy (kilocalories) you have eaten. Using an average of 5Kcal/g, then using the information on food packaging or assuming that your net production is 10% efficient in terms of energy intake, how much additional energy might you have stored during the day? (What is your weight gain from the food you have eaten?)
Breakfast- Nothing = 0 calories
Lunch- Pizza = 300 calories
Dinner- Steak = 750 calories
Total = 1,050 calories eaten.